SMART opponents say they won't play by rail agency's rules

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit opponents won't include language from the rail agency on their petitions asking voters to put an issue on the ballot to repeal the sales tax that funds the rail line.

The SMART board last week voted unanimously to change the initiative process, despite warnings from the California secretary of state that it is on shaky legal ground. The new ordinance requires SMART opponents to attach to its petitions an analysis of the initiative prepared by the rail agency.

On Tuesday the grassroots group Repeal SMART — which is behind the effort to derail the train — said it would not follow SMART's new ordinance.

"The SMART board of directors should play by the rules," said Clay Mitchell, RepealSMART spokesman. "It should revisit its improper election ordinance, which does not meet state law, and repeal the ordinance immediately."

Before the SMART board approved the ordinance, it received a letter from the secretary of state's office advising that it not try to change the process, and that to do so would be to "pursue a course of action that under the law, it does not have the legal authority to follow."

But SMART's special counsel said the law is unclear on how initiatives should be handled when it comes to districts like SMART.

"We have legal advice from our specialist saying what we are doing is legal and the course we took," said Farhad Mansourian, SMART's general manager. "If they wish not to comply that is the choice they will make."

Mitchell believes his group is in the right.

"There is no question that the state constitution trumps the local ordinance," he said, citing the secretary of state's opinion.

Given the secretary of state's opinion, Repeal SMART officials also worry that if they were to attach the SMART analysis it could invalidate the petitions, Mitchell said.

"We really don't have much choice," Mitchell said. "The registrars in both counties and the secretary of state said we are following proper procedure."

Measure Q — the SMART measure — needed 66.67 percent to pass in 2008. Marin gave it 62.6 percent approval while Sonoma gave it 73.5 percent, for a two-county total of 69.5 percent.

The approval raised the sales tax in Marin and Sonoma counties by a quarter cent to finance the train that was to take passengers from Cloverdale to Larkspur starting in 2014. A bike and pedestrian path along the route was part of the package.

But SMART has struggled amid higher-than-anticipated costs and a poor economy, which weakened the sales-tax base. SMART hopes to start a shorter line from Santa Rosa to San Rafael by 2015 or 2016, then build the rest of the line later if money can be found.